Kara, Chapter 3

Note: Though the chapters of this series are not connected, please read the previous ones to understand Kara better.

Enough of boys now. Being single does not imply “ready to mingle”. The best thing of being single is having no strings of attachment which in turn makes it easy to make a decision. And thus Kara decided to come out of her comfort zone. She left her family and friends to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. She flew 8,170 miles away from her world to experience the new world- Fairwinter, US.

The first thing one feels when they gain independence is to creating a world of your own. And a charming boy will come handy to every problem you face. Let’s be honest, for a girl, it’s given that there will always be a guy to help. That guy can be a boy trying for a chance to get into her pants, a gentleman attracted to her personality, brother who is forced to help or a dad who loves to pamper and make his daughter’s life easy. But to a new society, for chubby girl, hard to find a guy attracted to her to help her out. Her friendly nature did win friends who were like internet. They give information, entertain her,with her, for her, but not offer emotional support. And it hits hard when you’re away from home. At first, Kara was busy in finding apartment, adjusting to new lifestyle where even in the cold, people enjoyed cold drinks(soda pop). India follows the British Standard, so every British joke is applicable here. Starting from driving on the other side of the road to using different measurement units (miles vs Km), calling life an elevator, biscuits as cookies, petrol to Gas and not to forget the alphabet Z. The British call it Zed and Americans call it Zee. You would be amazed how simple things that make sense to one culture does not fit to other. Like for Indians, there are Vegetarians(non meat eater) and Non-Vegetarian eaters(meat eater). Meat, here in US is further classified to Red meat,chicken, sea food etc, but not the same in India. So small things as such, made Kara look stupid.

The best thing about creativity is to turn problems into art. Kara was attending a comedy night at the student center and she shared her problems while making fun of it.

“We Indians, not the native Red Indians, the brown Indians from the county India, although I would love to have a Red hair and hopefully FairWinter would make me fair like snow white, love to travel around but never leave our Indianess. It is not a word, but anyway, when you have a soup with an Indian, the first thing we do is add pepper to it, No matter how tasty the soup is, we have to enhance it with pepper. To every dish we like to add cayenne pepper, not sriracha sauce. The deliciousness of food is proportional to nose running. The more your nose runs, the more spicy and tasty the food is. Weird logic. We have food stalls on the streets, yeah that’s right people, we have food stalls on the roads, no cars on the roads because the traffic is so much in India that we can literally stay put at the signal, order food, eat and then leave. Arriving on time to a party in India would mean that you will find workers setting up the party and guests arriving 2 hrs late. If you say the party is 9 in the evening, you start receiving RSVPs at 9, guests start arriving around 11, the venue is jammed with people you know through 3 cousins like your cousin’s wife’s uncle’s second brother or something on the chain. You Americans think India is living in poverty thanks to slumdog millionaire, well, we have money. Not much money to travel abroad or live in mansions but enough throw a big lavish wedding party by taking loans. Yup, we need loans to wed because our wedding runs a week long but the preparation start a month ahead. And the only thought that runs in bride’s head is when the party ends, so that she can strip her clothes. No, you naughty people, she doesnt want to strip and dance for her husband, but wants to strip out of the heavy bride dress that weights more than her and remove all the jewelry that covered her face and neck and finger and every skin exposed. Indian parents are better than American Parents. They teach you to not speak with strangers but on Halloween day, kids are permitted to take chocolates from random people living in neighbor hood or malls, the only time you get free candies. Indian parents are miles ahead, they teach kids to never interact with opposite gender at young age but get married to a complete stranger whom is richer than their family.” She realized that her jokes weren’t that good, so she left the stage saying “Clearly, I am not going to pass the comedy club, but hey, if anyone is interested in learning about India, please google and spare me. Thank you all”. Some people clapped hands, some laughed,some were just eating the free food the comedy club offered and some just stared at her weirdly.

Although the night wasn’t interesting, she was glad to have vented it out. Just like life, it’s good to be persistent with efforts and life as a whole. Keep doing something, something old, something new but never stagnated.

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Published by meandermarquee

"Supply creates it's own demand." Hoping to supply art in order to be surrounded by it.
One day, academicians will have audience because of their love for words, swear words will not relate to you and being a woman,gay or transgender will not be a label.
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